Steele County, Minnesota is a rural county with a population of nearly 40,000. The county has complex network requirements in terms of servicing both county departments and MNPrairie, a joint association serving multiple counties. Steele County's IT team is responsible for supporting approximately 470 users across multiple departments and locations, implementing technology to meet the evolving needs of its government, and supporting criminal justice networks as well as other services.
The county's network configuration involved a mix of state-managed and locally controlled fiber connections, which created hurdles in provisioning new VLANs and managing network traffic. Previously, this required coordination with state IT services, leading to delays and complications. The adoption of Extreme Fabric Connect has transformed this process, allowing the county's IT team to manage and provision their network independently, without the need to involve state services. This has resulted in significant time savings and improved network agility.
In addition to simplifying network management, Extreme's solution has provided enhanced security features through encryption and seamless routing capabilities. The IT team now benefits from the ease of deploying new services and creating redundancy within their network infrastructure. This flexibility has been particularly valuable for critical services such as the Sheriff's Office, jail management, and community corrections, ensuring reliable and secure network operations.
